Farenheit 9/11

Review posted on 22 February 2006 by Alice Curteis, World-wise reviewer

Michael Moore's film has come in for a lot of criticism for being one-sided and indeed there isn't a single moment when Moore's aggressively anti-Bush portrayal of the events following 9/11 is challenged.

There are some easy targets, such as the scene where Bush sits for nine minutes staring into space in a school classroom after one of his aides has told him of the attack on the World Trade Centre.

However the film raises some disturbing questions and should not be dismissed out of hand. What exactly is the relationship between the Bush dynasty and the Saudi royal house? Why were dozens of members of the bin Laden family flown out of the US during the four days after the attack when all flights were supposedly grounded?

Is it appropriate that Congress should make decisions that send thousands of young US soldiers into a dangerous war where hundreds of them will be killed when not one Congress member has a family member involved in the fighting? Why was it that Iraq immediately became a likely target for US military action when Osama bin Laden had no connection there? What evidence was there ever for the existence of WMDs?

It's a pity that the film isn't more balanced because opponents of the Moore vision of the world are able to argue that its analysis is invalid. But Moore has done a valuable service by getting the issues known to an extremely wide audience.

Rating: 3/5